Two weeks after we arrived in Costa Rica, I was hanging out at one of the hotels on the peninsula. It was later in the evening, and we were watching the moon rise over the bay. I set up the camera on the brick steps leading out into the yard, and tried a couple of long-exposure shots. This one stood out from the rest – between its color, depth of field, and horizon, it’s a joy to look at. I hope you enjoy it too!

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Here are some randomly-collected stats about our time in Costa Rica…

• Days in-country: 30
• Number of hostels/hotels: 5
• Miles traveled by bus: 250
• Miles traveled by plane: 60
• Cities visited: 4
• Beaches visited: 10
• Times we heard the phrase “pura vida”: 6,174
• Drinks Stef had before Matt spun fire: 3
• Times Matt hit himself practicing poi: 265
• Times Matt set himself on fire with poi: 0
• Hours spent on ATVs: 5 (Stef), 5.5 (Matt)
• Top speed on ATVs: 79kph
• Injuries: 3 (all Matt)
• Nights with hot showers: 3
• Types of fruit juices tried: 12
• Offered “food for your brain”: 17

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So it’s been a little while since we left costa rica, but since I’ll be writing one of these posts or every region we visit, I wanted to make sure costa rica was covered . Here are the three things we found the most useful when we were in costa rica:

• Ricoh GX-200 Camera. The beach is a great place to capture the light of the sun, and not only did we find great colors in costa rica, we also sawsome really cool events, like some fire poi masters, a beautiful moonlit sky, and a storm off the coast. The camera was able to capture it all, as well as our more mundane self-portaits, and a few videos.
  
• Sunscreen. it gets really sunny on the beach, and we both needed SPF 70 to make it through. I missed a few times when I went surfing, and even zinc wasn’t always strog enough to save me.
• Bathing suits. We spent a month at the beach. Of course we needed bathing suits!

So that’s what we were most happy for having brought when we were in costa rica. Stay tuned for more…

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So when we were in Costa Rica I got to spin fire. I wanted to put the movie and the pictures (captured by our friend Kylie) together. So here they are!

Video:

Images (click to view the whole set):

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I learned poi (also known as fire dancing or fire spinning) in Costa Rica, and there are usually a few poi shows every week in Montezuma. I caught a few pictures of one of them – check them out!

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I´ve been lucky enough to capture some really great colors during our trip to Costa Rica. I put together a selection of them to check out:

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We visited Costa Rica´s best active volcano – Arenal – and stayed at the Smithsonian-financed Arenal Observatory Lodge. The lodge was originally built as a research facility after the volcano became active on July 29, 1968. It’s been open to visitors as well for the past ten or 20 years. It’s located in the park, about 1.7 miles (3ks or so) from the peak.

We had a great time at the lodge! We hiked around the grounds and down to the waterfall (see the photos for what we saw). The rooms were good and the meals were great! We also saw lake arenal (see photos) and the clouds parted enough for us to see steam rising from the lava rivers coming down the volcano (and you guessed it, there is a photo of that too)!

Click on the photo below to see the rest…

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We spent an afternoon at the volcano-powered hot springs of Baldi this past weekend. They are a mix of pools and entertainment/resort areas, with some pretty cool architecture. Most of the pools are heated (see if you can find the sign that shows the hottest temperature from our photos!).

We had a great time relaxing in the pools and checking out the sights. The meal was good, too!

Check out the photo set below – and look out for the surprise photo!

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As I’ve mentioned, I am learning poi and surfing in Montezuma, costa rica. The surfing program at La Escuela del Sol is great for beginners and fun.

There is a bit of a hike involved though – 40 minutes each way, across 5 beaches and 4 dirt paths to get from hotel la cascada to playa grande where we surf. It’s an interesting walk, so I thought I would share some pics- click on the photo below to view all the pictures…

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Stef wrote last week about our ATV ride around the nicoyan peninsula. Here are the pictures from our adventure!

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One night when we were at dinner, raquel (an Australian veterinarian) was explaining to us how sardines behave. Words don’t do it justice, so just watch the 30 seconds of video below…

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One night we were hanging out after surfing and saw a beautiful sunset. I didn’t have my camera with me, but I borrowed laura’s and snapped a few shots of the amazing colors! Click the picture below to see the whole set.

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Los artistes is the best restaurant in Montezuma costa rica. One of the chefs also helps run la escuela del sol, so we were very excited to eat there when he was there. We really enjoyed the food and atmosphere – see the photos:

We also saw Guille create our pizzas!

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We have a few videos on our website now!

Watch as Stef lands on one of the zipline platforms:

And our friend Taurean from La Escuela does the same:

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First of all, I apologize if my spelling of quadciclo is incorrect. My Spanish remains a bit spotty, so please feel free to post any corrections in the comments section. I’ve found that it takes a village to help me learn Spanish (Latin American Spanish, that is. I can’t face the incorporation of vosotros that Spanish spoken in Spain will require. That is next year’s task).

At any rate, Matt and I rented ATVs (quads or quadciclos here in Costa Rica) on Sunday. I had never had the urge to ride an ATV before, but here in Montezuma it is a major form if transportation. The roads are mainly dirt and gravel, so when the rains come, huge potholes and gullies are formed. ATVs are sometimes the only way to get from town to town and you often see people riding them to pick up groceries or to get to another beach (the eternal search for the best waves- los olas buenos).

So Matt and I decided to try our luck. Along with our friends Chris and Raquel, we set out early Sunday morning to see how far we could go. We drove from Montezuma to Cabuya, then through Malpais and Santa Teresa, stopping at the top of a steep hill at La Playa Manzanillo to watch the waves breaking across the coast. Absolutely gorgeous, and even more striking because the view caught you by surprise. We crossed three rivers and drove through lovely mountains, all shades of green and set off by a clear blue sky.

We were also chased by dogs, encountered a herd of cows, and had a dump truck filled with rocks roll backward toward us. Raquel popped a wheelie while passing a bus (accidental, but impressive none the less- the people on the bus loved it!). Chris, as our fearless leader, had no mishaps until the end of our journey, when he misjudged the angle of a turn and got up close and personal with a pick up truck.

We all returned safe and sound- covered in dirt (Matt has pictures he will post later) and bubbling with excitement. It was so much fun!

I also walked away with an interesting thought. As the sole passenger on our journey (Matt and I shared an ATV and everyone else drove their own vehicles), I realized that being a good passenger requires a full commitment. If I held on to the back bars of the ATV, our weight wasn’t evenly distributed and our trip was much more difficult. However, if I held on to Matt and leaned into the turns, we traveled smoothly and could pick up quite a bit of speed.

So even though Matt was ostensibly the one “in charge”, I had an important role to play. I could change the experience by deciding not to participate… or by being fully present. Hmmmmmm. It makes me think- is Zen and The Art of ATV Riding just waiting to be written?

Off to Arenal on Saturday to see the volcano, then to Quito, Ecuador on Tuesday. It is amazing how quickly the time is going by!

Pura vida, everyone!

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So we’ve been here for two weeks now, and we’re getting to know the Montezuma scene as well as some of the Costa Rican culture. Here are a couple of initial observations:

• Ticos (what Costa Ricans call themselves) have about as good a sense of time as the rest of Latin America- meaning none. Our 7:30pm dinner (cooked by a local) went off wonderfully – at 10:15.
• It is hot here – and the rain is the only thing that cools the air. We’re in the wet season right now, so I can’t imagine what it’s like during the hotter dry season!
• It rains every day here – it is the rainy season after all. Rains last 2-4 hours and are pretty intense. Most rains include a healthy dose of thunder and lightning for good measure.
• Surfing is an intense upper-body workout. Paddling out past the breakers requires moving the board back and forth, flipping over to duck under a wave (we call it “turning turtle” in our program), and paddling again, balancing on the board when you choose to ride over one on the way out, and then a fast pop-up to stand up and ride the wave in.
• The food here is good. As almost everybody says, there are tons of fresh fruits and fruit drinks available – I counted 12 different smoothie offerings at our low-end lunch restaurant today; each of those only had one fruit, but you can easily mix and ask for special combinations.
• There are many critters, too. Crabs of all kinds, ants, bees, bugs, monkeys and spiders – and just about everybody in town has at least one dog. I’m working on pictures, but it will take a few days…

So, those are some initial impressions. We’re still getting the hang of this blogging thing, so look for more later on…

Pura vida!

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We’ve added some new photos to the website! You can see pictures of:

the beach from surfing

Our friends at La Escuela

some of Zipline and waterfalls pics

Our visit to Rainsong Wildlife Sanctuary

Enjoy!

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There are times when everything just comes together- and yesterday was one of those days. As many of you know, I LOVE my birthday and tend to make a very, very, very big deal about it. But this year, I decided to be more laid back about it all. Just to see what would happen…

Here’s what came together:
- a zip line tour of the jungle canopy
- a swim in a waterfall pool (I was too much of a chicken to jump from the top of the waterfall, but I did jump from halfway up. Matt jumped from the top!)
- a long nap in the hammock (referred to as hammocking here at Hotel La Cascada)
- watching Jeremy (the director of La Escuela Del Sol), his wife, Andrea and their friend Amanda all spin poi (fire dance) on the beach
- a fantastic Italian dinner with new friends, arranged by my lovely husband and Guillermo, the most connected man in Montezuma
- a night of salsa dancing at Chicos, here in Montezuma

Our friend Will summed it up as a very “serendipitous birthday”. I think he’s right.

Pura vida, everyone!

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So, if I don’t get third-degree burns during my fire-juggling practice, I have another chance!

We will be visiting the Arenal volcano (see map) for a few days, and will probably stay at the Arenal Observatory Lodge.

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As a way to “ease” into our year-long South America trip, we will be spending three weeks studying Spanish and practicing Yoga and learning to surf and juggle fire at La Escuela del Sol in Montezuma (see the map below). We don’t know much about Montezuma yet, but we will know a lot more in about two weeks.

La Escuela is based in a converted hotel.

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We just found great tickets on Continental – we have an afternoon flight that will be really easy! So the first leg of our trip is all set (we booked La Escuela a few weeks ago).

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